FBI Give Hamas Operative A Tour

When I tell people that we are losing the war on terror, they look concerned. When I tell them my conclusion has nothing to do with Iraq or Afghanistan, they look confused. Pat Poole, captures a sadly repetitive story, of the US inviting known bad guys (identified as such by Federal Prosecutors), through tours of our most sensitive areas. You cannot defeat an enemy by inviting him into your house, this only confuses your family, not your enemy. We have clearly made a decision not to win....think Gen. Eisenhower would have invited Rommel to inspect his troops before D-Day?

Would you invite this guy into the National Counterterrorism Center?



FBI Escorts Known Hamas Operative Through Top-Secret National Counterterrorism Center as “Outreach” to Muslim Community

Posted by Patrick S. Poole Sep 27th 2010 at 3:52 am in Featured Story, Islamic extremism | Comments (60)

Sheikh Kifah Mustapha (third from left) touring the National Counterterrorism Center (Photo: FBI)

A known Hamas operative and unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorism financing trial in U.S. history – Kifah Mustapha – was recently escorted into the top-secret National Counterterrorism Center and other secure government facilities, including the FBI’s training center at Quantico, during a six-week “Citizen’s Academy” hosted by the FBI as part of its “outreach” to the Muslim Community. The group was accompanied by reporter Ben Bradley of WLS-Chicago (ABC), who filed a report on the trip to Washington D.C. on Sunday, who observed:

Sheik Kifah Mustapha, who runs the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, asked some of the most pointed questions during the six week FBI Citizens’ Academy and trip to Washington. He pushed agents to fully explain everything from the bureau’s use of deadly force policy to racial and ethnic profiling. “I saw a very interesting side of what the FBI does and I wanted to know more,” Sheik Mustapha explained after returning from D.C. He hopes the FBI’s outreach runs deeper than positive public relations. Yes, I bet he wanted to know everything about the FBI’s policies.

Curiously, Bradley’s report on the Citizen’s Academy fails to make note Mustapha’s extensive terrorist ties and support for Hamas, including his former employment with the Holy Land Foundation, which was listed as a specially designated terrorist group by the U.S. government in December 2001, and whose executives were convicted of terrorism support in 2008 and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Mustapha was personally named unindicted co-conspirator (#31) in the case and employment records submitted by federal prosecutors during the trial showed that he received more than $154,000 for his work for the Holy Land Foundation between 1996 and 2000. During the trial, FBI Special Agent Lara Burns testified that Mustapha also sang in a band sponsored by the Holy Land Foundation that regularly featured songs dedicated to killing Jews and glorifying Hamas. In a deposition he gave in a civil trial concerned with the murder of a Chicago teenager killed by Hamas while waiting for a bus in Israel, Mustapha admitted that he was the registered agent for the Holy Land Foundation in Illinois, and also to his involvement with other Hamas front groups, including the Islamic Association for Palestine. He was later hired as an imam by the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, which the Chicago Tribune reported in 2004 has long been a hotbed of Hamas support.

Bradley’s omission of this information about Kifah Mustapha in his report on Sunday is all the more curious since his own station aired an extensive investigative report of Mustapha’s terrorist ties earlier this year.The WLS investigation into Mustapha’s terrorist ties was prompted by a report published by the Investigative Project on Terrorism in January, which noted that Mustapha had been selected and trained as a chaplain by the Illinois State Police despite his documented terrorist support. The State Police eventually withdrew Mustapha’s appointment as chaplain and just last month he filed a lawsuit against the agency claiming discrimination aided by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, another FBI-identified Hamas front group.

There are several obvious problems with this episode, the first being the FBI’s “outreach” to a known Hamas operative (identified as such by federal prosecutors) and walking him through some of our country’s most sensitive counter-terrorism facilities. Why should terrorist operatives have to covertly case potential targets when the FBI will happily escort them and taken them into areas they would never be able to reach on their own? Who’s next on the FBI’s “outreach” calendar, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his fellow GITMO detainees?

This ongoing “outreach” to terror-linked individuals and leaders of known terrorist front groups by senior leaders of our national security, homeland security and law enforcement agencies is the kind of behavior criticized by my colleagues and I in the Team B II’s report released earlier this month, “Shariah: The Threat to America“. As I observed last week here at Big Peace, Matt Duss of the Center for America Progress and ThinkProgress.org demands that we continue this insane national policy of embracing the same individuals and organizations who have been caught openly cheerleading for Islamic terrorists and have called for the destruction of the U.S. and Western Civilization.

The other glaring problem is that a reporter working in one of the largest media markets in the country can travel to such an event and be unaware of or unwilling to mention his own station’s reporting on his travel partner’s terrorist support activities. Such is the state of the establishment media today.

FBI Plays Texas Hold'em With Jihadi

Surprise! Just when John Brennan had you feeling relaxed by telling Jihad was ok, another jihadi gets arrested trying to provide material support to jihadis. OMG, my sense of trust in the government's strategic understanding of enemy threat doctrine has been turned upside down.....oh, wait, never mind, these are not the droids I'm looking for.
Houston Chronicle has the story here:

Barry Walter Bujol Jr. claimed he was just a window washer, but a federal grand jury on Thursday accused the 29-year-old of attempting to provide al-Qaida terrorists with global positioning instruments, cell phones and a restricted publication on the effects of U.S. military weapons in Afghanistan.

According to court records, the tall, bearded Bujol was arrested by federal agents at the Port of Houston while boarding a ship bound for the Middle East.

Bujol, a U.S. citizen, was shackled at the waist and ankles when he appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Frances Stacy, who ordered him to remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

“This arrest is a sobering reminder of the threat we continue to face,” said Richard Powers, head of the FBI's Houston division. “It remains the FBI's overriding priority to predict and prevent terrorist attacks, at home and abroad.”

Authorities also searched Bujol's home at the Pine Meadows Apartments in Hemp­stead.

He said little in court; his attorney could not be reached immediately after the hearing.

The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force began investigating Bujol in 2008 and determined he was sending e-mail to Anwar al-Aulaqi, a known associate and propagandist for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, according to prosecutors.

Al-Aulaqi provided him with a document titled “42 Ways of Supporting Jihad.” Bujol also allegedly sought al-Aulaqi for advice on how to provide money to the muja­hedeen overseas. Al-Aulaqi is the native-born U.S. citizen who exchanged e-mail with the suspect in the 2009 Fort Hood shootings, Army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan.

In addition, Bujol made three unsuccessful attempts during February and March 2009 to leave the country and travel to Yemen or elsewhere in the Middle East, according to court documents.

The indictment lists 11 names for Bujol, including Pat, Paul, Michael, Abu ABudha Al Farnasi and Abu Najya.

He is accused of knowingly attempting to provide material support or resources to al-Qaida, including personnel, currency, prepaid phone cards, mobile telephone SIM cards and global positioning systems.

Prosecutors said he also attempted to provide restricted publications that detailed not only aspects of U.S. military systems, but described unmanned vehicles as well.

“Protecting the American public from the threat of terrorism, both international and home-grown, is the highest priority of the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas,” said Jose Angel Moreno, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas.
FBI enlists informant

As federal authorities did not take questions, it is not known how Bujol first came to their attention, what steps he allegedly took to transport the goods to al-Qaida, or whether any of those items were procured in the Houston area. Also unknown at this point is how Bujol is alleged to have made his initial contact with al-Qaida.

Beginning in November 2009, the FBI brought a confidential informant into the investigation — someone whom Bujol allegedly believed was an al-Qaida operative, according to prosecutors.

Over the next few months, Bujol repeatedly said he was willing to travel overseas to fight for al-Qaida.

The person working for the FBI provided him with a fake identification card that Bujol would use to get into the port in order to board a ship bound for the Middle East.

Bujol and his wife, Ernestine Johnson, are also charged with fraud in connection with an alleged conspiracy to obtain housing subsidies, court records show.

In 2009, Bujol claimed to make just $75 a week working part-time as a window washer at what authorities contend was a bogus company established in his name.

Johnson said she survived on money sent from the family.
Accused of rent scam

Because of the low income he claimed, Bujol secured subsidies that lowered the couple's rent to just $6 per month, instead of the usual $715, according to an affidavit filed in federal court.

At one point, Bujol allegedly was using the Social Security number of a man who had been killed in a car accident in Louisiana in 2001.

The FBI said it started keeping tabs on Bujol in 2009 with a camera hidden outside the couple's apartment, and never saw evidence that he had gainful employment.